Heading to Dragon Land - 125cc scoots

I live in NC. and have absolutely no idea who that is in the picture with the blond woman ?????

As for getting rained on up there , be advised it happens a lot

Pretty foggy and dreary Thursday morning. Went to breakfast hoping that killing some time would burn off some fog; it was better when we got back to motel ready for the days adventure. Forty percent chance of thunderstorms, so we hoped for the best as it was pretty decent when we rode off. Just out of town we jumped on the Old Walland Hwy to avoid the fast 2 lane - what a great little road along the river. It comes out close back to the main road where where it goes back to 4 lane so we only had a short, fast ride to the get on the Foothills Parkway. Riding on the Parkway to 129 it started to sprinkle, and when we got to 129 it really started to rain. We were lucky enough to be close to a shelter so we were out of the heavy stuff. When it died away, we took a leaf covered, wet ride on the Dragon. Needless to say, it was not a fast ride. We both have Chin Shengs - last a long time but not known for the best traction. There was more traffic than I expected thru the Dragon that morning.

Stopped for coffee and hoped to catch a view of the weather radar at the dragon stop but the 'net was down. Deciding to press on as it was getting nice we rode down 28 in hopes of getting to explore the back roads in that area. Climbing out of Fortuna we ran into heavy rain so we turned around and rode out of it shortly. The sun came out as we rode to the picnic area at the dam to enjoy the other half of our cuban sandwiches. While we were at the visitor center you could see another thunderstorm rolling in so we spent about an hour while waiting for it to clear. It turned sunny shortly after we rode out of Fortuna; the sunny areas of the Dragon started to dry out so we decided to explore before heading back to the motel.

The county map shows Happy Valley road connected to the Parkway so we took it. Very interesting road - lots of curves (some tighter than the Dragon) houses ranged from Mcmansions on gated drives to places like this:



Well, it went under the Parkway, not connected to it by any road we could tell, so we backtracked out and took the Parkway. By then the weather was perfect and the view was great - some of the best mountain views we saw.




Back to the motel where a couple on a Harley raved about the BBQ they had just had up the road so we enjoyed another dinner in Townsend. It started storming again as we were leaving the restaurant so we were glad we were in the truck. Rained pretty much all night. Not a bad way to end the trip.

Well, I didn't start out to have this be a ride report, as you have seen all the pics before, but the yarn just spun out of me. We spent about 8 hours a day in the saddle, and put on over 600 miles on the scoots so there is a lot of memories.

Saw two accidents - a Harley dumped over on 129 north of the dragon because of the uneven pavement from the road to the shoulder parking area. On the Dragon a Chevy Cobalt skidded off a wet, tight curve into the ditch - both accidents only bruised egos.

Didn't witness any serious jackassery, or other behaviors that would scare me from another trip to the area. The lure of the roads we rode, and the ones left to explore are calling me back.

I want to sincerely thank those who responded to my original post who took the time to help make this a great trip, and those that had posted the trip reports that helped guide the trip also.

BTW - Tellico Plains and Townsend had places to buy beer

Glad to see you had a great trip. Thanks for posting a ride report.
A couple of comments:

Like you, I have never had anyone say anything negative because I was on a small scooter.

Happy Valley road does connect to the Parkway. It also passes underneath it in a couple of places and can be used to go all the way to 321 but that is involves a number of roads and is pretty complicated.

Well the blond woman is my wife. The guy - you have watched Discovery Channel's "Moonshiners" haven't you? - Is Jim Tom. He lives in Robbinsville and regularly holds court at the store. I would have stayed to listen to more of his stories if I could have understood half of what he was saying

Never watched the show, no interest on my part.
Yea , I get it that it's part of the history here , just not something this displaced yankee is interested in.

The blond is a hottie though !!

I'm glad the trip turned out to be all that you wanted.

The Skyway is known for fog and rain, really different weather up top.